The Two Works of Scripture: Part 2, The Work of God and Works Wrought in God

[Study Aired April 29, 2026]

Recap and Orientation

In Part 1 we established that Scripture recognizes two categories of works that no natural effort can produce — the one proceeding from the old man, the other from the indwelling Spirit. The natural man, proceeding from the living soul rather than the quickening spirit, produces only “dead works” — a category broad enough to include moral evil, works of the flesh, religious activity, and even the commanded ordinances of the Mosaic law, all of which fail to justify the man who performs them. Romans 7 disclosed the personal crisis: the will is present but the power is absent, and the cry of the chapter is for deliverance, not improvement.

Part 2 now turns to the resolution. If the old man cannot work the works of God, can the works of God be worked at all? The answer Scripture gives is both simple and staggering: yes — but only when the Worker Himself is received. The work of God is believing on the One whom God has sent. From that single act of receiving the Son, a new order of works begins — no longer originated by the natural man, no longer offered as the basis of our acceptance before God, but wrought in God through the indwelling Spirit.

The Hinge: What Is the Work of God?

The decisive question is asked in the sixth chapter of John. A multitude, having eaten of the loaves and sought Christ across the sea, approached Him with a question every natural man eventually asks: What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? (John 6:28). The question presupposes that God has works He desires performed, that men are capable of performing them, and that earnest labor is the path to God’s approval. It is the native religion of the sons of Adam, offered sincerely.

Christ’s answer dismantles the premise entirely: This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent (John 6:29). The singular — work, not works — arrests us. And the content — believing, not laboring — overturns the question’s assumption. The work God requires is not something man originates and offers to God, but something God does in man when man receives the Son. It is the moment the laborer ceases striving and receives the One in whom all of God’s working dwells.

Paul develops this same truth in Romans 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (Rom 4:4-5). Two mutually exclusive categories: the one who works and earns debt, and the one who believes and receives righteousness. Abraham is the exhibit: For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Rom 4:2-3). Paul’s argument is not against works as such but against the works of the old man offered to God apart from faith in the One whom He has sent.

The same principle appears in Romans 9:30-32: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. Israel labored; the Gentiles believed. Israel sought by works; the Gentiles received by faith. The paradox exposes the nature of the natural order’s labor: the more it is pursued as the basis of standing before God, the more it confirms the flesh’s inability to attain the spiritual.

Titus 3:5 places the same truth under the gospel’s own heading: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The verse speaks twice — first to exclude what cannot save, then to name what does: not our righteous works, but the regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The natural excluded; the spiritual introduced. And what the spiritual introduces is not less activity but differently sourced activity — for Paul declares in the same letter the very purpose of Christ’s purifying work: Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14). Christ did not ransom a people from the natural order’s bondage in order to leave them in idleness; He ransomed them in order to purify them into a people whose very character is zeal for works wrought in God. The regenerated man does not labor less; he labors differently — not by his own strength but according to the working of the One who works in him mightily (Col 1:29)

Hebrews 4: Ceasing from One’s Own Works

Before we can consider the works wrought in God, we must consider the cessation Scripture says must come first. Hebrews 4 develops the Sabbath typology in a way that directly applies to works. For we which have believed do enter into rest… There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his (Heb 4:3, 9-10).

The Greek word for “rest” in verse 9 is sabbatismos — a sabbath-keeping. The rest is a cessation, not an inactivity. It is the deliberate laying down of one’s own labor in order that another’s work may proceed. The pattern is Genesis 2. God finished His works; God rested; God’s rest was entered by all who participated in His finished work. Under the old covenant the weekly Sabbath commemorated this pattern as external sign — a natural shadow; under the new covenant the believer enters the reality the sign declared — the spiritual substance. Colossians 2:16-17 confirms the typology explicitly: Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. The weekly day was shadow; the rest in Christ is substance.

Observe the precise parallel in Hebrews 4:10: he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. The believer’s cessation is like God’s cessation. God did not cease working because He was tired; He ceased because His work was finished. Likewise the believer ceases not from all activity but from his own works — the self-originating labor of the old man offered as the basis of his standing before God.” What remains when that ceases is not idleness but a different order of labor — the works of Christ wrought through the believer by the Spirit.

This is why the writer issues the solemn exhortation: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (Heb 4:11). The only labor now appropriate is the labor of entering the rest. Every other labor, however sincere, returns the believer to the condition of the natural order from which Christ has delivered him. The Sabbath shadow ceased; the rest it signified remains, and the believer enters it by the cessation of his own works in order that the Worker may proceed unhindered.

This is the missing link between Part 1 and the spiritual works about to be considered. The works of the spiritual do not add themselves to the works of the natural; they proceed out of the cessation of the natural man’s labors. The old man must stop before the new Man can be seen. The burden of self-effort must be laid down before the yoke of Christ can be received, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt 11:28-30). The invitation to rest is the invitation to cease our dead works and receive the Worker whose labor is life.

Works Wrought in God

Our Lord draws the contrast in the third chapter of John with a single statement: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God (John 3:21). The determining question concerning any deed is not what it looks like but where it was wrought. Two men may perform identical outward acts — one wrought in the flesh, the other wrought in God — and the first is dead while the second is living. Works wrought in God proceed from the quickening spirit rather than the living soul, manifesting the operation of the One who dwells within.

Jesus Himself, in the days of His flesh, modeled the pattern perfectly: The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10). Christ did not labor as the first Adam labored; He labored as the Last Adam, a quickening spirit, in whom the Father’s working was perfectly manifest. And He declared that the same pattern would extend to all who believe: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12).

The purpose of these works is not the believer’s own credit but the Father’s glory. Our Lord declared plainly: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matt 5:16). Works wrought in God are not performed for standing before God — that is already settled by faith. They are performed, or rather borne, so that the watching world sees not the believer’s effort but the Father’s life shining through him. The source of the work determines its direction: what proceeds from the old man points to the old man; what proceeds from the indwelling Worker points to the Father who sent Him.

The phrase “greater works” has stumbled many readers. The key is to let Christ interpret His own word. In Luke 7:28 He uses the same Greek term — meizon (G3187) — to declare that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, the greatest prophet born of women. This is not a comparison of individual ability; it is a declaration of order. The least of the spiritual surpasses the greatest of the natural, because the spiritual order is categorically greater than the natural. That same word governs John 14:12. The works believers do are greater not because they exceed Christ’s miracles in individual power — none has raised a Lazarus or stilled a sea — but because they belong to a higher order entirely. They are works wrought in God, proceeding from the indwelling Spirit rather than from the natural man, and what the Spirit produces belongs to the spiritual order. Christ’s ascension inaugurated the sending of the Spirit, who now works from within countless members of His body across every nation and age. The scope is greater; the order is greater; the source is the same indwelling Worker whose presence Pentecost multiplied into the members of His body. The “greater” is the greatness of the spiritual over the natural — the same greatness by which the least in the kingdom exceeds the greatest born of women.

God Working Within

Paul develops the indwelling Worker doctrine with a specific Greek verb that rewards careful attention. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13). The believer’s working out flows entirely from God’s working in. The verb rendered “worketh” is energeo (Strong’s G1754) — to operate effectively, to be at work within, to produce energy from within.

The same verb converges across the apostolic letters to establish the doctrine. God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11). The power that worketh in us (Eph 3:20) is the measure of what God can accomplish beyond what we ask or think. Paul labors according to his working, which worketh in me mightily (Col 1:29). The word of God effectually worketh also in you that believe (1 Thess 2:13). And the writer to the Hebrews brings it to its fullest statement: Now the God of peace…make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ (Heb 13:20-21). Six witnesses to the same operative reality: God at work within, producing through His people every good work that is wellpleasing in His sight. The consistent picture is not human effort directed toward God but God’s own energy operating within the vessel He has made.

Ephesians 2:10 supplies the capstone: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. The Greek word for “workmanship” is poiema — that which is made, a crafted thing. We are not the craftsmen but the craft. We are not self-constructed moral agents; we are His workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus — a new creation, not a rehabilitated old one. The good works are before ordained — prepared by God before we walk in them, like garments laid out in advance. We do not originate these works; we walk in them.

As we saw in the Hebrew Foundation, Isaiah already declared this centuries before Paul: LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us (Isa 26:12). What the Old Testament anticipated, the New Testament now confirms in full. The acceptable works of God’s people are works God Himself has wrought in them. The Worker and the works are both His.

This transforms our relationship to labor entirely. The old man labored to become something; the new man labors because he has been made something. The old man sought acceptance through his works; the new man has acceptance and expresses it in works. The old man’s works burdened and wearied; the new man’s works flow from the Spirit’s energy and fulfill the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2). I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20). The Worker has taken up residence; the works are His.

The Unity of Faith and Works: Two Kinds, One Doctrine

Once the works of the natural order and the works wrought in God are clearly distinguished, the supposed contradiction between Paul and James resolves completely. The apostles are not teaching competing doctrines about the same category of works; they are addressing two different kinds of works.

Paul writes to the Romans: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law (Rom 3:28). The works Paul excludes from justification are the works of the natural order — the labor of the old man offered to God as the basis of standing before Him. Such works cannot justify because they cannot produce what God requires. This exclusion is absolute.

James writes to the twelve tribes scattered abroad: Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (James 2:24). The works James requires for the vindication of faith are works wrought in God — the living activity of faith that has entered into operation, the fruit that proves the tree, the evidence that Christ has taken up residence. James is not adding something else to stand on alongside what Paul establishes; James is insisting that faith itself must be alive, and living faith necessarily produces living works. What Paul calls “works” in the justification debate is a different category from what James calls “works” in the vindication debate. Same vocabulary; different referents; no contradiction.

Both apostles appeal to Abraham, and together they reveal the harmony. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Gen 15:6, quoted both in Rom 4:3 and James 2:23). Yet James asks, Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? (James 2:21). The believing was Genesis 15; the offering was Genesis 22 — separated by years. The first was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness; the second vindicated it as genuine. Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? (James 2:22). The works did not create the faith; they completed it, manifested it, proved it real.

Paul himself affirms the identical reality from his own vocabulary: For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love (Gal 5:6). Faith that works by love — the very phrase joins what human theology so often separates. The same apostle who denies that works of the law justify affirms that faith, to be genuine, must work by love. The work is not an addition to faith; it is the activity of faith, wrought in God through the indwelling Spirit. Paul writes of the Thessalonians, Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:3). Paul has no quarrel with James; he uses James’s language.

So the apostolic witness is unified. Paul and James speak of two kinds of works — the works of the natural order (which cannot justify) and works wrought in God (which manifest the faith that already justifies). What we stand on before God is faith in Christ alone; the necessary evidence is works that faith produces through the Spirit. No one is justified by the first; no one who is justified remains without the second.

The Work is His

In Part 2 we have seen that the work of God is believing on the One whom God has sent, that faith enters the Sabbath rest by ceasing from one’s own works as God did from His, that the works which follow are wrought in God rather than in the flesh, that energeo reveals the indwelling operative power of God producing what no natural strength could, and that the apparent conflict between Paul and James dissolves when we see two kinds of works rather than two competing bases of salvation. The Worker has taken up residence in the believer; the works that now appear are His.

One final dimension remains. Scripture teaches a universal judgment of works — a day when every work will be manifested, tested by fire, and either rewarded or burned. In Part 3 we will consider that judgment, the testing of believers’ works according to 1 Corinthians 3, the devastating warning of Matthew 7 concerning religious works performed in Christ’s name, the sheep-and-goats scene of Matthew 25, and the final vindication of the apostolic pattern when the Worker is glorified in His works through His people.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil 2:13)

The Law of Moses Versus the Law of the Spirit – Part 20

[Posted May 3, 2009]

[Updated April 5, 2024]

A Harmony of James and Paul

Let’s continue Paul’s thought in Galatians 2: “For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” “If I build again the things which I destroyed” is a reference to the law. “For I through the law am dead to the law”, is the very next verse. If we “build again the things we destroyed” then we are establishing “[our] own righteousness, which is of the law” (Php 3:9). When we “return again to the weak and beggarly elements” from which Christ has freed us we are healing the deadly wound which the Truth had begun within us. Our old man was being destroyed and turning again to the weak and beggarly elements of the law was the healing of that deadly wound:

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

When we ignore what we have learned about Christ, and return to our old ways which are more acceptable to the society we live in then we are placing ourselves back under “the law [which] is not of faith” (Gal 3:12), and which is “[our] own righteousness” (Php 3:9), then we are “building again that which we had destroyed, “[and] making ourselves transgressors”. Christ is not “the minister of sin” even if “I make myself a transgressor” (vs 18).

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Gal 2:17  But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Gal 2:18  For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Gal 2:19  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Galatians 2:16-19 is consistent with Romans 3:5-7, where Paul poses the same question: “If our unrighteousness [rebuilding the “old man” whom we had destroyed] commend the righteousness of God [which of course it doesn’t, any more than our sins make Christ ‘the minister of sin’], what shall we say; is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?” (vs 7).

Paul is asking if our calling does not make us “free from sin.” If we are to simply continue in sin, why would we be considered sinners at all? “And not rather as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just” (vs 8). This “our unrighteousness commending the righteousness of God” and “the truth of God abounding through our lie” were both “slanderous reports” of Paul’s teachings.

What Paul did teach was the same thing James taught. While James says “faith without works [the working of Christ in us] is dead” (Jas 2:26), Paul puts the SAME TEACHING in other words: “know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1Co 6:9). Again Paul instructs: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap”

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Gal 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

It is true that Paul was given to emphasize that our good works which James acknowledges as the fruit of our faith is “[Christ’s] workmanship” and that our faith is also a gift of God and not of ourselves:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

That sounds pretty close to ‘faith without works is dead’; certainly much closer than the slanderous reports being circulated that Paul taught that our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, or the truth of God abounds through our lie. Paul says of those who say he teaches such things “their damnation is just.”

Rom 3:5  But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
Rom 3:6  God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
Rom 3:7  For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
Rom 3:8  And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

It was all a lie. Paul had never once said, “Let us do evil that good may come.” He never once said, “Let us sin that grace may abound.” Like James Paul’s doctrine was [“We were] created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10)

When James said:

Jas 2:15  If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
Jas 2:16  And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

Jas 2:18  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James is agreeing with Paul that our works are the result of the faith of Jesus Christ, and to claim “I have works” without faith is the same lie Paul was dealing with.

Phrase #8

We now come to the final phrase used in Hebrews in relation to this matter of the law and the covenants.

“…He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:9). The first part of this verse is “Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” It is followed by “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (vs 10).

Heb 10:8  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Heb 10:10  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

This disclaimer of the law of the physical offerings is quoted from:

Psa 40:6  Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Psa 40:7  Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
Psa 40:8  I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

“By which will” refers to God’s will. The scriptures declare that we are sanctified by the will of God and not our own will, but our focus here is “he taketh away the first that he may establish the second.”

What exactly is taken away? The answer is universally understood to be the old covenant which is “taken away” and replaced by the new covenant.

The depth and scope of the differences in these covenants is not universally understood. On the contrary, it seems that few indeed are willing to believe the plain and straight forward scriptures detailing the meaning of this phrase “he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” Many of those differences are detailed in Matthew chapters 5-7.

The many other changes which are listed in those three chapters of Mattew demonstrate the truth of Paul’s statement “…we are the circumcision, which worship God in spirit… and have no confidence in the flesh” (Php 3:3).

The flesh has been taken completely out of the equation for salvation. In reality, it has never been anything more than a necessary evil to bring us to Christ in the spirit. “…Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more [after the flesh]” (2Co 5:16).

In Romans 3:31 Paul asks the question, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” This whole paper has established that only for those in Christ is the law of Moses “made void”, “done away” and “abolished”; three different translations in the King James Version of the same Greek word katargeo.

The law itself is established by this fact. The understanding of Romans 3:31 is to be found ten verses earlier in verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God without the law [of Moses, “for the lawless” (1Ti 1:9)] is manifested, being witnessed by the law [of Moses] and the prophets.”

This verse witnesses that Christ would come and reform the law of Moses:

Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee [A reformer], and will put my words [Not the law of Moses] in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
Deu 18:19  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak [Not Moses] in my name, I will require it of him.

Had the law, the old covenant, “the ministration of death written and engraven in stones”, not been “done away” for those in Christ, the law would have proven itself a false prophet. Now, only for those in Christ, it is “abolished” (Eph 2:15) and replaced by a much higher, much more honorable and spiritual law. “The Lord is well pleased for HIS righteousness’ sake; he [Christ] will magnify the law and make it honorable” (Isa 42:21). If it were already honorable, He wouldn’t need to do that, would he? If, on the other hand, the law of Moses was a carnal commandment (Heb 7:16) used “lawfully” only for “the lawless and disobedient” (1Ti 1:8-9), then a new law along the lines of Matthew 5 would be in order.

1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; [To bring us to Christ (Gal 3:24)]
1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

You do not “magnify” a house during construction and expect the contractor to eat the difference in cost. A new contract must be drawn up to deal with the changes. Neither do you move from the “carnal”, “lawless” and “disobedient” to the spiritual without a completely new covenant with a “change also of the law.”

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

It is through the new words ‘by the mouth of a prophet like Moses’, that the law is “established” and proven a true “witness”. Until ‘that Prophet and His words’ come into our lives, the law will be “established” for our “lawless and disobedient” flesh, to show our flesh its naked condition and make it aware of its decaying earthy composition. Generation by generation “the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” and generation by generation “after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster”. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that EVERY MOUTH may be stopped and ALL THE WORLD may become guilty before God” (Rom 3:19).

The law of Moses is equated by Paul to “the elements of the world” (Gal 4:3). Notice I said ‘equated.’ Not all ‘laws’ are the ‘law of Moses’, but all law is equated with the law of Moses as far as scripture is concerned:

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law [of Moses], do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law [of Moses] written in their [stony] hearts [Eze 36:26-27], their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

Gal 3:22-23 – “But the scripture hath concluded all [all Jews and Gentiles] under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were [all] kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed”,

Gal 4:1 – “Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child [G3516: nepios, an infant, “under the schoolmaster… tutors and governors, under the law], differeth nothing from a servant [slave to sin], though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.” What Paul is telling us is that “the ministration of death” is katargeo and we, in Christ only, are “free from the law of sin and death” (the ministration of death) (Rom 8:2):

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. [the law of Moses]

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11  For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

It is hoped that this article will help someone, somewhere to take his eyes off the things of the flesh. Yes, Christ was born in the flesh, and yes, He died on the cross for our sins, and yes, God “made him sin for us, who (Christ) knew no sin” (2Co 5:21). These were but necessary evils. “Yet now henceforth know we him no more in the flesh.” We have all been born in the flesh, and we will all die in the flesh, but it is far more edifying and encouraging to know that “NOW are we the sons of God and… we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1Jn 3:2). As we see Him we “are changed into the same image from glory to glory… by the spirit of the Lord” (2Co 3:18). So while we have demonstrated the inadequacies of the law in this essay, we conclude with this reminder for any who might attempt to turn God’s disciplinary, chastening grace into lasciviousness: If we truly see him as he is, every man purifieth himself even as he is pure.”

1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Summary

What we have pointed out, in effect, is the sovereignty of God in all things. “That they may know… that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things” (Isa 45:6,7). Yes, it was God who created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was God Himself who placed that tree right in the middle of the garden. While He had told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this was done only because “the Lord… sought an occasion against” Adam (Jdg 14:1-4). God had already determined that Adam would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and would come to see his naked, decaying, earthy condition and be brought by the law to see his need for a Savior. We know this is true because we are twice told that we were “called… in Christ, before the world began”:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

“All that dwell upon the earth shall worship… the lamb slain from the foundation of the world”:

Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, [every one] whose name hath not been written in the book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

In God’s all-knowing mind, Christ was slain as the sacrifice for the sins of the world before Adam was ever created. This gives the lie to the teaching that ‘God could have known what choices you will make, but because He has given us free will, He chooses not to know.’ What utter nonsense! No, God chose to know all things because “all things are of God”. “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things…” (1Co 8:6). God knows our very thoughts because He gives us our thoughts:

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man [our very thoughts], and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Has God chosen to know the very number of the hairs of your head, but not to know what you are going to do with your life? Hardly! We are plainly informed that God reveals Himself to some and deliberately blinds others. “…the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded… God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear” (Rom 11:7, 8).

So what does understanding the total sovereignty of God have to do with a proper understanding of the function of the law? It has everything to do with it, because it is through the law, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that God has decreed that all the world becomes guilty before Him. “What things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom 3:19). “Wherefore then serveth the law?

“It was added [to the law of the spirit] because of transgressions [of the law of the spirit], till the seed should come to whom the promise was made… the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we (all of us) were kept under the law… Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ… But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Gal 3:19-25).

God does not change (Mal 3:6). Christ came to reveal the Father (Mat 11:27 and Luk 10:22).

Mat 11:27  All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

This He accomplished through His sacrificial life which revealed for the first time in the history of mankind the “new covenant.” The new covenant “show[s] the work of the law [of God, not Moses] written in their hearts” (Rom 2:15). Under this new covenant Christ reveals to us the Father: “I delight in the LAW of GOD after the inward man” (Rom 7:22). “…The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the LAW OF GOD neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:7, 8). The LAW OF GOD, the “least commandments”, which Christ revealed in Matthew 5 to 7 are the “LAW OF THE SPIRIT” (Rom 8:2). This is the true unchangeable character of God: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but MY WORDS shall not pass away” (Mat 24:35).

The law of Moses, on the other hand, is only “good, if a man use it lawfully… [meaning that it “brings us to Christ”. Meaning that we know that this law of Moses, written and engraven in stones, this ministration of death] …is not made for a righteous man [the man who is not carnally minded and delights in the LAW OF GOD, the new covenant, after the inward man]. [The law of Moses is] for the lawless and disobedient” (1Ti 1:8, 9).

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh [the “carnal commandments, Heb 7:16, of the law of Moses], but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death [“The ministration of death” (2Co 3:7) the law of Moses].
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law [of the spirit] might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the [law of the] Spirit.

1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law [of Moses] is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law [of Moses] is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine [the law of the spirit];

That is the mind of the holy spirit on this subject of the function of the law of Moses versus the law of the spirit.

The Book of Romans, Part 9 – “By Grace Are You Saved”

[Study Aired August 22, 2023]

Rom 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Rom 3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
Rom 3:30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Rom 4:1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
Rom 4:2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 
Rom 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 
Rom 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 
Rom 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 
Rom 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Rom 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. 
Rom 4:9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 
Rom 4:10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 
Rom 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
Rom 4:12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

Let’s review the last few verses of our last study.

Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

This verse captures the heart of Paul’s teaching on justification. He emphasizes that a person’s righteousness before God is not achieved through adhering to the works of the law, but rather by having the faith of Christ in you. This verse asserts that faith is the means through which a person is declared righteous, highlighting the transformative power of having the faith of Jesus Christ. 

Rom 3:21-22 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Rom 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans 3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.

Paul addresses the universality of God’s reign. He reminds us that God’s sovereignty extends beyond the Jews to include the Gentiles as well. This highlights God’s plan of salvation through the faith of Christ, emphasizing that God is the God of all people, regardless of our backgrounds.

Romans 3:30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

Paul reiterates the fundamental truth that God is one, and He justifies both the circumcised (Jews) and the uncircumcised (Gentiles) through faith. This emphasizes faith as the common requirement for both groups to obtain righteousness before Him.

Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Paul anticipates a potential misunderstanding and responds to it. He clarifies that the principle of justification through faith does not invalidate the law; rather, it upholds and fulfills the law. Faith does not nullify the standards and principles of God’s law but instead establishes a new relationship with the law where believers fulfill its requirements through their transformed lives.

Mat 5:17-20 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Rom 4:1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 
Rom 4:2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

Paul introduces the concept that if Abraham were justified by his works, he could boast about it, but not in the presence of God. This emphasizes that men’s achievements and works cannot bring true righteousness before God.

Ephesians 2:9-10 Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 

Paul refers to Scripture to illustrate his point. He highlights that Abraham’s faith in God was what led to his righteousness being credited to him. This emphasizes that faith is the key element in justification.

Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Rom 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 

When someone works for something, the reward is considered a debt owed to them, not a gift of grace. This underscores the difference between works-based righteousness and the grace-based righteousness obtained through faith.

Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

Rom 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Paul contrasts works with faith. He emphasizes that righteousness is imputed to the one who doesn’t rely on their own works, but rather believes in God’s justification of the ungodly. This further emphasizes the role of faith in righteousness.

Galatians 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Rom 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Rom 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Rom 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

These verses explain how David also speaks of the blessedness of being credited with righteousness without works, but through the forgiveness of sins. This emphasizes God’s act of not imputing sin to believers.

Psalm 32:1-2 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity.

Rom 4:9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 

Paul raises the question of whether this blessedness of being counted righteous applies only to the circumcised (Jews) or also to the uncircumcised (Gentiles). He reiterates that Abraham’s faith was the basis for his righteousness, implying that this blessing extends to all who share in Abraham’s faith, regardless of their circumcision status.

Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

Rom 4:10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

Paul addresses the timing of when Abraham’s faith was reckoned as righteousness. He clarifies that it happened before Abraham was circumcised, emphasizing that faith was the foundation of his righteousness, preceding any physical sign or ritual.

Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Rom 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

Paul explains that Abraham’s circumcision, received later, was a sign and seal of the righteousness he had by faith when he was still uncircumcised. This signified that Abraham is a father of all believers, whether circumcised or not, emphasizing that righteousness comes through faith.

Genesis 17:10-11 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Rom 4:12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

Paul clarifies that Abraham is a father not only to those who are physically circumcised but also to those who walk in the same footsteps of faith that he did before he was circumcised. This emphasizes the centrality of faith as the common ground for all believers, regardless of their outward differences.

Galatians 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Paul uses the physical example of circumcision to establish a spiritual message – the faith of Christ is our only hope of being saved. Abraham was given faith that Sarah would give birth. He did not believe at first, but faith prevailed.

Genesis 17:15-21 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

The faith we have is not of ourselves. It is the faith of Christ. In the above scriptures, a change takes place. Sarai becomes Sarah. This represents us receiving the truth of the gospel. We were barren without the truth, and now we become fruitful.

Col 1:3-14 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Our righteousness will get us nowhere and will only keep the veil over our eyes. We are saved by grace through faith whether we are circumcised or uncircumcised.

Eph 2:1-10 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The faith of Jesus Christ is our salvation.

Here are our next study’s verses:

Rom 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Rom 4:14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 
Rom 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 
Rom 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 
Rom 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Rom 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
Rom 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 
Rom 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 
Rom 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 
Rom 4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 
Rom 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 
Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 

The Book of Romans, Part 7 – God is Justified

[Study Aired July 25, 2023]

Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. 
Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 
Rom 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Rom 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. 
Rom 3:5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 
Rom 3:6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 
Rom 3:7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 
Rom 3:8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
Rom 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 
Rom 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known: 
Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 
Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

In Romans 1 and 2 Paul chastises those who are judging improperly and teaches them how to properly judge. We must judge ourselves first before we can judge others. He also introduces the spiritual meaning of the physical world and what it means to be a true Jew.

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. 

Here in chapter 3 Paul continues to explain the law’s purpose and how to properly judge.

Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 
Rom 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Rom 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. 

Psalm 51:1-4 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

We must acknowledge our transgressions and our sin is against God himself.

Rom 3:5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 

In Romans 3:5, the apostle Paul presents a hypothetical question to address a potential objection or misunderstanding. Let’s break down the verse to understand its meaning:

“But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak as a man)”

In this verse, Paul is discussing the concept of God’s righteousness in relation to mankind’s unrighteousness. The phrase “our unrighteousness” refers toour sinful actions and behaviors. Paul suggests that if, through our unrighteousness, God’s righteousness is made more evident or praised, then does it mean God is unjust when He punishes sinners?

The argument seems paradoxical, and Paul prefaces it by saying “I speak as a man.” This statement is used by Paul to signify that he is presenting a man’s line of reasoning or a hypothetical argument. He is not asserting this as a valid point but rather raising a question that some might pose, which he will soon address.

The point Paul is making is that God’s righteousness is demonstrated even more powerfully against the backdrop of mankind’s unrighteousness. God’s justice and holiness shine brightly when contrasted with the sinfulness of mankind. However, this does not mean that God is unjust in punishing sinners. On the contrary, His righteous judgment is entirely fair and just, even if it serves to highlight His righteousness. Paul uses the same type of argument discussing the law in 2 Corinthians 3:7-11.

2 Corinthians 3:7-11 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

In the following verses (Romans 3:6-8), Paul refutes this hypothetical argument and reaffirms that God’s judgment is just and necessary. He argues that if God’s righteousness is demonstrated through man’s unrighteousness, it doesn’t mean that God should tolerate or condone sin. God will still judge sin because He is holy and just, and He has made it clear through His law that sin leads to condemnation.

Rom 3:6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 
Rom 3:7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 
Rom 3:8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

In essence, Paul is emphasizing that God’s righteousness is not compromised or diminished by our unrighteousness. God’s justice remains perfect, and His judgment is without fault. This section of Romans highlights the universal sinfulness of mankind and the need for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, underscoring the righteousness of God’s plan of redemption.

Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
Rom 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 
Rom 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known: 
Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 

Romans 3:9-18 are quoted from the following Old Testament verses.

Psalm 14:1-3 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Psalm 53:1-3 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Psalm 5:9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

Psalm 12:2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbor: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

Psalm 140:3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.

Psalm 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

Psalm 59:12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.

Isaiah 59:7-8 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

Here are the last two verses in our study.

Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

In these two verses (Romans 3:19-20), the apostle Paul explains the purpose and limitations of the law in relation to man’s righteousness and justification before God.

Romans 3:19 – The law speaks to those who are under it. Its purpose is to bring everyone to a recognition of their guilt before God. In other words, the law reveals the true extent of man’s sinfulness and renders every mouth silent, leaving no one with an excuse for their wrongdoing. The law demonstrates that all people are falling short of His perfect standard.

Romans 3:20 – The deeds or works done in an attempt to follow the law cannot justify anyone in God’s sight. No one can attain righteousness or be declared righteous by merely obeying the law. Instead, the law serves as a means to recognize sin and to gain knowledge of what is right and wrong in God’s eyes. It reveals the gap between human imperfection and God’s holiness, making it evident that no one can achieve salvation or righteousness through their own efforts under the law.

In essence, these verses affirm that the law highlights man’s sinfulness and inability to attain righteousness on our own. Instead, the knowledge of sin through the law points to the need for God’s grace and the redemption provided through faith in Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God.

[Study Aired September 8, 2020]

Luk 18:1-8 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men  ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city  a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there  was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge  me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward  he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet  because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her  continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the  unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which  cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell  you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son  of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? 

In our last series of studies, we saw the baptisms which begin our journey to the Kingdom of Heaven. Now we must endure until the end to be saved. Christ’s point in this parable is to never cease from being diligent in seeking the Kingdom of God until the fullness of our inheritance comes to be, patiently waiting on the Lord to work His vengeance. 

(BBE) Luk 18:1 And he made a story for them, the point of which was that men were to go on making prayer and not get tired; 

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but  he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Mat 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

The saying “endure unto the end” is mentioned three times for the following reason.

Mar 13:5 -13 And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name,  saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And when ye shall  hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such  things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall  rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and  troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. But take heed to  yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the  synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before  rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. And the  gospel must first be published among all nations. But when  they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand  what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever  shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that  speak, but the Holy Ghost. Now the brother shall betray the brother  to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. And ye shall  be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

1Th 5:14-18 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are  unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but  ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all  men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing  give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus  concerning you. 

1Pe 5:6-7 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of  God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon  him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your  adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom  he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the  same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the  world. 

Why are we to always pray? Here is Christ’s explanation via a parable. 

Luk 18:2-6 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not  God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and  she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he  would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though  I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth  me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary  me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

The widow would not give up until she was satisfied. She represents our new man.  Once we are truly born again by the baptism of water, fire and the spirit, our new man will not cease from praying to endure the trials of this life which produce vengeance on the old man. We are given our power to avenge from the Father through Christ.

Luk 18:7-8 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day  and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that  he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man  cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? 

The Lord is our judge, and He only has the power to avenge us of our old ways.

Rom 12:16-21 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not  high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in  your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide  things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as  lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written,  Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if  thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so  doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of  evil, but overcome evil with good. 

Deu 32:35-43 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence;  their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at  hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For  the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his  servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none  shut up, or left. And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock  in whom they trusted, Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help  you, and be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he, and  there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal:  neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my  hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering  sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render  vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I  will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour  flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from  the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations,  with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and  will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

The new man’s thoughts are given here in Psalms 94.

Psa 94:1-23 O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Lift up  thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the  proud. LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked  triumph? How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all  the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces thy  people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow  and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, The  LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard  it. Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when  will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that  formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen,  shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he  know? The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and  teachest him out of thy law; That thou mayest give him rest from  the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the  LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his  inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all  the upright in heart shall follow it. Who will rise up for me against  the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of  iniquity? Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost  dwelt in silence. When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD,  held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts  delight my soul. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with  thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves  together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the  innocent blood. But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the  rock of my refuge. And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity,  and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our  God shall cut them off. 

Here are our verses again and some final thoughts.

Luk 18:1-8 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men  ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city  a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there  was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge  me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward  he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her  continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the  unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which  cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell  you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son  of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

We will find the answer to this question throughout the scriptures.

Heb 10:30-39 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall  into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance the former  days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both  by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became  companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of  me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence,  which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of  patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come  will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if  any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Isa 59:14-17 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice  standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot  enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh  himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that  there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and  wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought  salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he  put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation  upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. 

Eph 6:10-20 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the  power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle  not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against 

powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against  spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the  whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the  evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having  your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of  righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all  perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that  utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly,  to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an  ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought  to speak. 

Will there be faith? Who is given faith?

Psa 31:21-24 Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his  marvellous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste, I am cut  off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of  my supplications when I cried unto thee. O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall  strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD. 

I will conclude our study with James 2. 

Jas 2:1-26 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ,  the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto  your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there  come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to  him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here  in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here  under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are  become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and  heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love  him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbouras thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For  whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said  also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou  art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy  rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith  save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if  it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy  works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest  that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and  tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith  wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Here are the verses for the next study. 

Luk 18:9-14 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted  in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two  men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the  other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,  God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners,  unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week,  I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar  off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote  upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you,  this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for  every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that  humbleth himself shall be exalted.

[Study Aired May 28, 2020]

Heb 2:1  Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 
Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 
Heb 2:3  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

The word spoken by angels was stedfast, and Christ was stedfastly about our Father’s business in the old covenant just as He is today within the body of Christ which is where our Father’s business is being conducted (Luk 2:49, Heb 13:8, Zep 3:17, Php 2:13). The body of Christ is to be of the same mind (Php 2:2, Col 1:24), speaking the same thing stedfastly as we are guided and led by God’s holy spirit that bears witness that we are His sons who are about our Father’s business through Christ and as Christ’s body (Rom 8:14, Rom 8:16, 1Jn 4:17). It is Christ who is that angel working within the seven angels of  Revelation 8:6 (Mat 22:29, Rev 8:6) fulfilling God’s purpose in this age within the life of the bride of Christ, actions that were typified for us with Israel in the wilderness (1Co 10:2-6).

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Zep 3:17  The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. [It takes power to blow the trumpet; “the seven trumpets“.]

Rev 8:6  And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. [Rev 19:7]

This section of Hebrews we will examine is filled with admonition for Christ’s body to be stedfast and confidently believing (Joh 6:28-29) that He is doing this work today within us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Eph 2:10, Php 1:6, Luk 12:32), which involves our overcoming the powers and principalities that would have us neglect so great a salvation by not stedfastly keeping our eyes on the mark of the prize of the high calling that is in Christ. As we look to the Lord we grow in our ability to discern good and evil which is the exercise we are enduring through together so that we can blow the trumpets of God having had our senses exercised to be able to do so  (1Pe 5:8-9, Php 3:14-15, 1Co 14:8, Heb 5:12).

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. [“resist stedfast in the faith” (Heb 4:11, Joh 6:27)]
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” is the first verse we’ll look at in our study and the “therefore” being spoken of, is all that was discussed in the previous chapter that reassured us of the “kingship and priesthood” that we have become a part of by the rich mercy  that is expressed to us through the grace and faith of Jesus Christ. That kingship and priesthood in the making (God’s workmanship) requires that we take heed of the things being established, and “to be holding fast unto the things that have been heard, lest, at any time, we drift away” [Rotherham].

(Eph 2:5-8, 1Th 5:21) The Corinthian church was slipping in regard to not discerning the need to ordain those who should be judging the matters that required mature leadership and they were obviously not getting any Godly results as they ended up turning to the courts of this world to resolve issues between brothers in Christ (1Co 6:2-11). This story is written for the admonition of God’s kings and priests who have been called to go on to perfection and reach that level of maturity which will be required for us to judge the world and angels one day (Eph 4:13).

1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
1Co 6:4  If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
1Co 6:5  I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
1Co 6:6  But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. [“drift away” – caught in a spiritual worldly undertow or riptide]
1Co 6:7  Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
1Co 6:8  Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
1Co 6:9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

[“The exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” of  Ephesians 2:5-8 is to be “washed” and “sanctified” and “justified” through Christ in this age, which will take a steadfast life of overcoming so that we can one day judge angels, and how much more the things that pertain to this life as stated in 1Corinthians 6:3.]

Now we know we have a high priest in heaven, a Savior who is stedfast and who we cry out to as he did himself when he was in his flesh and was delivered in that He feared God (Heb 5:7, Psa 34:4, 1Jn 4:17). Christ tells us to not cast away that confidence that we can have in him, telling us to cast all your cares upon him and to look stedfastly to the Lord for deliverance that He has promised will be given to those who seek him with all their hearts (1Pe 5:7, Jer 29:13).

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Psa 34:4  I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Our flesh does not naturally want to seek the Lord out, and like Christ himself, we must learn obedience by the things we suffer in order to cease from sinning, or as it was in Christ’s case, to never let sin ever manifest in His life, which is something we must strive for all our lives (Rom 6:11). Our high priest, who was tempted in all diverse manner, never sinned so that we could have a spotless savior who, “being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” We would just not naturally “obey him” without the power of God’s holy spirit being shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5). It is the grace and faith that work together through our hope of glory within which accomplishes that end of obeying God or fearing God and working righteousness (Heb 4:15, Eph 2:6, Joh 14:20, Eph 2:8, Col 1:27).

[(Heb 5:8-9) works of the flesh in which we naturally walk until we don’t; (Gal 5:16-26) how those who are bidden to the wedding supper will obtain a wedding garment (Mat 22:8-10, Joh 21:18).

We are admonished to press forward and fight a good fight of faith and know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1Co 15:58, Psa 127:1). Our diligence, our striving (Christ’s work in us – Col 1:27-29), will be rewarded and that reward in earnest today is to have the mind of Christ and the strength to die daily and put off this flesh to the glory of God so we can endure until the end and receive the fulness of that reward (Heb 11:6).

1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Col 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Satan’s goal is to circumvent that steadfast diligent desire to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first (Mat 6:33) and to make us feel that we are unworthy (Act 13:45-47, 1Co 6:2), as he accuses us and tries to hold us back from laying hold on eternal life (fighting for everlasting life – 1Ti 6:12, Rev 12:10, Rev 3:11). As God’s elect we die daily and have our conscience sprinkled by the blood of the lamb (1Co 15:31, Heb 10:22-24, Act 13:45-47) as we go forward with that confidence in Christ that He will make it possible for us to receive the recompence of the reward for which we have respect today as “the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” by “the power of his Christ” (Heb 11:26, Rev 12:10, Luk 10:18).

Act 13:45  But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming [1Co 11:19].
Act 13:46  Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you [1Co 1:19], and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. [Luk 14:23]
Act 13:47  For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [judging yourselves unworthy], and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised
Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward [Moses example is a type and shadow of Colossians 1:24 that is required to make us worthy to rule under Christ (2Ti 2:12)].

Before we look at the first three verses of this second chapter of Hebrews we’ll be studying, let’s consider this word “stedfast”. Strong uses three different numbers for this word, each one helping us understand more clearly God’s mighty hand in our lives.

G949 From the base of G939 (through the idea of basality); stable (literally or figuratively): – firm, of force, stedfast, sure.

Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast^G949, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast^G949 unto the end;

Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfastG949, and which entereth into that within the veil;

2Co 1:7  And our hope of you is stedfastG949, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

firm, 1:  Heb_3:6
force, 1  Heb_9:17
steadfast, 4 2Co_1:7; Heb_2:2; Heb_3:14; Heb_6:19
sure, 3  Rom_4:16; 2Pe_1:10; 2Pe_1:19

G1476  From a derivative of hezomai (to sit); sedentary, that is, (by implication) immovable: – settled, stedfast:

1Co 7:37  Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast^G1476 in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.

1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast^G1476, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

[Fleshly works are vain and won’t inherit the kingdom of God, but God’s work through the church is “not in vain” and is treasure laid up in heaven (Mat 6:20), negative laying up (Rom 2:5), positive laying up (1Ti 6:19, Tit 3:8)]

Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settledG1476, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

G4731  From G2476; stiff that is solid stable (literally or figuratively): – stedfast strong sure.

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast^G4731 in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Strong uses this number “G4731” three other times besides 1Peter 5:9, giving us that sense of the immovability of God’s hand in our life (verse 6).

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. ¹
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast^G4731  in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

stedfast^G4731 defined by Thayer as

1) strong, firm, immovable, solid, hard, rigid

1a) in a bad sense, cruel, stiff, stubborn, hard

1b) in a good sense, firm, steadfast

Total KJV Occurrences: 4
•strong, 2
Heb 5:12; Heb 5:14 [strong meat]

•steadfast, 1
1Pe 5:9  [solid/stedfast in the faith]

•sure, 1
2Ti 2:19 [the foundation of God]

This stedfastness is what we pray for each other every day that we may be resisting stedfast in the faith keeping our eyes on Christ the author and finisher of our faith who makes that possible (Heb 12:2), knowing we are accepted and called to overcome through many afflictions (Act 14:22) and all for the sake of others who will see Christ’s example within us that forms the discipleship of love [obedience to God’s commands] that we are so blessed to share today and that will lead to our being saviors who come up on mount Zion to do for others what Christ has done for us (1Pe 2:12, Joh 13:35, Oba 1:21).

Our attitude must be “to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip“, and God willing He will use each of us to hold fast to this high calling and help each other to be stedfastly looking unto our Lord, following each other as we follow Christ (1Co 11:1) so that we can endure unto the end of our lives and be saved through each joint that supplies in love (Mat 24:13, Eph 4:16).

God is telling us, His kings and priest, to understand that we have been called to witness to the world how God has made us worthy or accepted through Christ (Eph 1:6). To despise that high calling is to despise Christ and His sacrifice and all he has suffered for us. That rejection, although it is caused by God, will still lead to a sorer punishment those who are not granted to be made ready must endure, and God is doing this to show the world His severity and goodness and how He will do what He wants with that which is His (Heb 10:29).

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast^G4731 in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Heb 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

God willing, we won’t lose sight that the stedfast and zealous relationship we have with Christ today is the gift and blessing to which we have been called (Tit 2:14, 1Pe 3:9), and the holy spirit will show us if there is anything that needs to be corrected, as there will be, or purified and sanctified, as there’s going to be. In the end His faithfulness will prevail through the fiery trials and judgment (God’s wrath [1Pe 4:12] is God’s judgment upon us today [1Pe 4:17]) that we all must endure through together stedfastly unto the end, in order to be raised in that blessed and holy first resurrection (Php 3:14, Rev 20:6).

Tit 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

1Pe 3:9  Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

Heb 2:1  Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

The thought “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard” is another way saying “Despise not prophesyings” (1Th 5:19-28) by showing contempt to God’s word. Christ is faithful who will preserve us blameless until his coming (Php 2:13), and that will happen while we “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12). Does that mean that we are never going to slip and is that what it means to be “preserved blameless” of 1Thessalonians 5:23? No we are preserved through the fire in this life, through the wrath and judgement that God brings upon our old man as He causes us to stumble and fall a complete seven times (Pro 24:16) in order to learn of His mercy that we will in turn administer to the rest of the world, seeking the occasion against their flesh during the period called the thousand year reign and then administering the great white throne judgment in the lake of fire.

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.
1Th 5:20  Despise not prophesyings.
1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1Th 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil.
1Th 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 5:24  Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

Php 2:11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. [Joh 21:22]

To be “preserved blameless” is to know that we need a physician (Luk 5:31) and that we are going to need our advocate throughout this life (1Jn 2:1), and because God is dragging His elect toward Christ (Joh 6:44) we can “give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard” and know how to make war with sin in our heavens through Christ who sets us free (Joh 8:36).

Sin will manifest and we will “slip” in that regard, and if we say otherwise we deceive ourselves (1Jn 1:8). The good news is that we will gain dominion over sin in this life if He is working with us (1Co 15:56-58) and learn that God is the one who allows sin to manifest the light and the darkness, the good and the evil (Isa 45:7). If we are His in this age, He will cleanse us, wash us, sanctify us, justify us and give us victory over the giants of our land [sin and temptation] that will be bread for us. “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31-35, 1Co 6:10-11, Num 14:9).

Heb 2:2  For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

This verse ties in perfectly with what we’ve just discussed about the grace of God, and reveals to us that God’s mercy toward the elect in this age does not mean that He is going to be mocked (Gal 6:7) and so He tells us “the word spoken by angels was stedfast“, another way of saying “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17).

That is the deception God is burning out of us, to bring us to see His holiness and how he requires that same holiness within us that can only be obtained through the fire, through the Red Sea, through the lion’s den (1Pe 1:16). That is why it is only those who are bound to the altar in this age who will drink the cup (Psa 118:27, Mat 20:23), the altar being the cross of Christ which we are able to endure by the strength of Christ as we mortify the deeds of our flesh and live by the faith of the son of God to the glory of our Father (Gal 2:20).

In order for us to become holy, we need to have God’s wrath and judgments poured out upon us as we learn that “every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward“. We learn through this life that God is not mocked, and whatever we sow we’re going to reap. We also learn that God’s mercy rules over the judgments and wrath the elect are experiencing in order to be received of our Father (1Pe 4:17, Heb 12:6). There are equal measures and weights all along the way (Deu 25:15, Rom 8:18), and as His mercy prevails, we give thanks and praise to God for these wonderful works to the children of men as His kind of first fruits who are blessed to be the first to be judged and brought unto perfection on the third day (1Jn 4:17, Psa 107:25-32, Luk 13:32). It is a “just recompence of reward” we receive for our sins that God causes, and we naturally cannot understand this until we come to see His sovereignty over the entire process, and we become convinced of His loving purpose for doing things the way He does that will not let any one of us be separated from His hand.

Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa 45:8  Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
Isa 45:9  Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? [Rom 9:20].

Heb 2:3  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

The “great salvation” to which we have been called is accompanied with a great process that we know was explained to us in type and shadow through the nation of Israel who represent the “Israel of God” who we are.

Gal 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. [Exo 19:6, 1Pe 2:9, Zec 2:8]

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

If we are blessed to go through that judgment in this age, it will bring about a peace that passes all understanding (Rev 20:6, Php 4:7) as we experience the fruit of that judgment in our lives bringing about the righteousness of Christ in our heavens (1Jn 4:17, Isa 26:9). It is that process of fiery judgment to which God’s elect have been called that is going to make us “blessed and holy” and no longer conformed to this world but “transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:2, Heb 5:14).

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

What was “confirmed unto us by them that heard him” was that it is through much tribulation we will inherit the kingdom of God, and God is faithful who has started this process within us of dragging us to Christ through a lifetime of overcoming, so that we can obtain to that blessed and holy first resurrection, and do so with a mind of peace that passes all understanding. We are being formed and fashioned through a lifetime process of overcoming confirmed in type and shadow with the life of Moses and all the prophets who were types of that longsuffering process to which we have been called (Jas 5:10).

(40 typifies the number for tribulation in God’s word, and 3X40=120 shows us that this process of judgment (3) were going through will occur through a lifetime of much tribulation (Act 14:22) and that thought was already being confirmed in type and shadow in the life of Moses who died at 120 years of age [Deu 34:7].)

What is also confirmed is that hearing (“confirmed unto us by them that heard him“) is the miracle that is the litmus test for God’s elect today to know if someone is of us or not (1Jn 4:6-8). Israel heard the sound of Yahweh on Mount Sinai, but that hearing was only type-and-shadow hearing, and no one was converted at that event where “there fell of the people that day about three thousand men” (Exo 32:28). When we hear Christ’s voice today we hear the voice of the true Shepherd which is made possible by receiving the holy spirit as the church did on pentecost when 3000 were baptized and began to die daily spiritually (about 3000 [Act 2:41], about 5000 [Act 4:4]). The numbers are signified and tell the story of the process of judgment (3) through grace and faith (5) that add up to the new man 8000 (8x10x10x10).

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Deu 34:7  And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

1Jn 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the next six verses of this chapter that reveal more of the same true witness of Jesus Christ spoken of in the old and new covenant typifying for us the reality of Christ in the lives of those few who are called to be His witnesses with Christ in us as our hope of glory (Col 1:27) in this age (Luk 24:48-49, Rev 11:3)

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.
Luk 24:49  And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? 
Heb 2:5  For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 
Heb 2:6  But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
Heb 2:7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 
Heb 2:8  Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 
Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Dear brother,

Just one quick question to further help me and direct my studies: what about Abraham having been justified by faith? Any studies on that?

Thank you!

F____

Hi F____,

Thank you for this question.

It is easy to answer because the scriptures simply do not say that Abraham, or anyone else in the Old Testament was “justified by faith”, as your question suggests.

James and Paul agree that Abraham was “justified by works”, but as Paul points out, that means nothing to God:

Rom 4:2  For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

Jas 2:21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Abraham’s ‘faith’ was merely a type and shadow of the saving faith “that should come unto you… not unto [him]self”.

1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Peter spent 3 1/2 years with Christ, but he was not yet converted because the holy spirit had not yet been given to give Peter and without the holy spirit no one can have the saving faith of Christ.

Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the [Holy] Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

If Peter were not converted, how could anyone in the Old Testament have been converted?

Christ tells us this is just how important the holy spirit is to the process of our salvation:

Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Joh 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

Clearly the world had never yet been “reproved of sin, or righteousness, and of judgement” nor had it ever received the holy spirit before Christ came into this world.Clearly the world had never yet been “reproved of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” nor had it ever received the holy spirit before Christ came into this world.

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luk 22:33  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34  And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

I hope this helps you to see what this world cannot see, that the Old Testament men of faith “were not ministering to themselves but unto us”, and they “enquired and searched diligently, [and] prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:”

Abraham and all of the Old Testament men of faith will be saved with “few stripes” through the fiery words of Christ which ‘words in the mouths of God’s elect are the ‘fire’ of the “lake of fire”.

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh [fiery words] uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

A couple more points that need to be made concerning the quality of Abraham’s faith is that Abraham’s faith allowed him to kill the men of the armies who carried off the people of Sodom, which included his nephew, Lot.

Gen 14:17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.

The ‘faith’ available to Abraham and to all in the Old Testament permitted them to partake in the practice of polygamy:

Gen 25:6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.

Clearly the faith of the Old Testament times was not the saving “grace through faith” which is “the gift of God” which we are granted in the New Testament.

To bookend this question of whether the Godly men of the Old Testament will be in the first resurrection and whether they will have any part in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”, Christ himself tells us this concerning the spiritual standing of any and all who died before the sacrifice for their sins was made through His death and resurrection:

Mat 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Abraham was certainly ‘born of a woman’, and yet “he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than [Abraham]”.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

Video Links

Job 13:1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.
Job 13:2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.
Job 13:3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
Job 13:4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
Job 13:5 O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
Job 13:6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
Job 13:7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
Job 13:8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?
Job 13:9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
Job 13:10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
Job 13:11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
Job 13:12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Job 13:13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
Job 13:14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

Introduction

To this point we have witnessed the pride of our flesh in Job and in his accusing, so- called comforters. But as the type of God’s firstfruit elect, it is Job who is being judged and who is being used to demonstrate to us what are our own faults first.

Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Jas 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Are Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar full of “the pride of life”? Yes, of course they are. But it is not Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar who are being judged and afflicted by the hand of God at this time. “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of” Job first (1Pe 4:17). It is Job who is first being ‘afflicted by God’ and humiliated before his own “inward friends”. It is Job, the type of God’s “firstfruit… elect” whose judgment must begin first. It is Job, as a type of God’s elect who must have the this ‘vessel of clay’ destroyed first.

Job 6:14 To him that is afflicted [ by “the hand of God”] pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
Job 19:19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
Job 19:21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

‘All in Adam’ first build with “wood, hay, and stubble” before they build with “gold, silver, [ and] precious stones”, and “every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare… every man’s work”. The only thing that distinguishes God’s elect is the fact that they are the “firstfruits of the spirit” (Jas 1:18), and are therefore those upon whom ‘judgment must first begin’.

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

God’s judgment which must “first begin at us” is that fire which causes us all to suffer the loss of this present evil life.

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

But we do not ‘find our life’ until we have suffered “the loss of all things”, and Job’s story demonstrates that this “loss of all things” is a lengthy process that is “for a long time” which seems like an eternity to Job while that process is taking place. As the type and shadow of us, Job’s trials are the seven last plagues as they are being poured out within our lives.
It was God who gave Job life and all that he had. Outwardly Job appeared to be a very good, God- fearing man. But Job had a ‘deep, dark, deadly’ sin within his flesh which is common to all men. That sin had to be ‘brought out to life’, and Job, as the type of us, had to come to see that even the prosperity of this life, when covered with this sin still within us, is nothing more than “the valley of the shadow of death”, which must be burned out of each of us.

Job 12:22 He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.

Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Luk 20:9 Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.

As hard as it is for our natural man to grasp, God’s rod and His staff are his fiery words that are intended to comfort us, and are given as a lamp to our path.

Psa 119:105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime [ Job’s trials included] were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

The spirit demonstrated by both Job and His ‘miserable comforters’; his comforters falsely accusing him, and Job accusing both his “comforters” as well as his Creator, is the spirit given to the “husbandmen” who receive the Lord’s “vineyard, and who then refuse to give Him the fruit of his own vineyard.

Luk 20:10 And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty.
Luk 20:11 And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.
Luk 20:12 And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out.
Luk 20:13 Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him.
Luk 20:14 But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.
Luk 20:15 So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?
Luk 20:16 He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.

This book of Job is the story of the destruction of these evil husbandmen. The beast within Job, also called “the first man Adam” is being burned up and destroyed as the means by which “the new man… the last man Adam” is being birthed within us. The “others” to whom God will give His vineyard is that “new man” who is being birthed within us.
However Job does not yet understand any of this, because at this stage of our story, he is a shadow of each of us before we come to see that we must lose our life in order to find it. So Job in this stage of his development continues to foolishly compare himself with his “miserable comforters”.

Job 13:1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.
Job 13:2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

The last thing any of us needs to be doing is comparing ourselves to those whom God has sent to prove us. Nevertheless those whom God uses to bring us our trials should be appreciated for the sacrifice that is being made of them for our own spiritual benefit.

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

God will, in His appointed time, have mercy upon Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, the types of those through whose “unbelief” our mercy is obtained. But these men are the type and shadow of those who are not at this time being judged.

Job 13:3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
Job 13:4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
Job 13:5 O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

These three verses are preceded with:

Job 13:2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

The beast is still on the throne within us, while we are comparing ourselves among ourselves or with the leaders of Babylon. That is who Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, foreshadow. At this point Job is no different. His symbolic election is not yet made known to him or his accusing ‘friends’.

2Co 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

The one thing that distinguishes God’s elect, as we see them throughout God’s word, is their desire to please God, even as they fail to see the sin that is in their members. From Abel, to Joseph, to Jacob, to King David, and to all the prophets and great men of scripture, they all in their own individual way “feared God and eschew evil”.

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

Job wants to speak to God and ask Him what He is doing and why He is doing it. “I desire to reason with God. But you are forgers of lies, you are all physicians of no value. Oh that you would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom”.
Few of us are as outwardly pure as Job is presented to us. “That man perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil”. So Job knows that the things that are being said of him are not true. Still it is obvious, even to him, that the Lord is doing something in his life that he doesn’t understand. What Job doesn’t understand is that he is inherently self- righteous. Another thing Job does not yet understand is that his entire life and experience as well as that of his friends, is not ministering to himself, but to us.

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

There is a lot to be said about that section of 1Pe 1. That is a very bold statement “… not to themselves, but unto us they did minister”. Peter is here merely reiterating what Christ told us when He said this:

Mat 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

… and again:

Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Christ tells us that “he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John” who is as great as any man born of a woman before Christ. If that is so and if what Peter tells us of the ministry of the Old Testament prophets not being to themselves but to us, then it is also true that no Old Testament saint will be in that kingdom. If John or any other Old Testament saint is in the kingdom of heaven ahead of those who are in Christ, then Christ’s words are meaningless and contradictory. On the other hand, if none of the Old Testament saints and prophets were even ministering to themselves but to us, then what Christ said is true. He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John, who is as great as anyone born of a woman.
But didn’t Christ also say that ‘Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be in the kingdom of God’? Yes, He did. Here is what Christ said just three chapters earlier:

Mat 8:11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 8:12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What is going on here? Weren’t Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob “born of women”? We know that Isaac’s mother’s name is Sarah, and we know that Jacob’s mother’s name was Rebecca. We also know that Abraham was born of a woman even if we are not given her name. So how then can Christ tell us in Mat 8 that those patriarchs will be in the kingdom of God, and then tell us that “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”?

The answer to this apparent dilemma is made very clear when we understand that the “kingdom of heaven” extends beyond the thousand year period, which is also a part of “the kingdom of heaven”, and it extends through the period known as ‘the great white throne judgment and the lake of fire’. Here are the verses that make this clear:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

“Every man” who has ever lived is to be raised up to life, “in his own order”. So when Christ said that “he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John” He never meant that to be understood as the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, and saints would never be in that kingdom. What He is telling us is that those who will rule in that kingdom first, will be “greater than John” who is as great as any man ever born of women.
Now notice that the kingdom of heaven extends beyond the thousand years and into and through the great white throne judgment and the lake of fire all the way to the destruction of death itself, until God is “all in all”. It is revealed in the very next verses of 1Co 15:

1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end [ the harvest at “the end of the year, Exo 23:16], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

“He [ Christ] must reign, till he has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Just in case there is any doubt about the time line involved for the salvation of physical Israel and all of the”many prophets and righteous men” of the Old Testament, we have these verses to clear that question up:

Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

So all Israel, including all the “many prophets and righteous men”, all the patriarchs and all the Old Testament saints, will be brought to God “when… Sodom… and Samaria are brought back to God, after the thousand year reign of those who are in the kingdom of God during that thousand year period. Let’s look at these verses again:

Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is called ‘the faith chapter’ because it lists the names and acts of faith performed by the “many prophets and righteous men” to whom Christ, Peter, and Paul refer. At the very end of that chapter this is what we are told:

Heb 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

The “something better” is not for “themselves but unto us” (1Pe 1:12). “That they without us should not be made perfect”, is just another way of saying this:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

“They without us should not be made perfect” simply because it is “through your mercy [“he that is least in the kingdom” as well as he that is greatest] they also [ Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who “all died not having received the promises”] may obtain mercy”.
“Many prophets and righteous men [ who] have not seen them” certainly includes Job. But again, Job knows nothing of any of this, while suffering the loss of all things, and being covered with boils, and being falsely accused by his “inward friends”. So he continues his fruitless efforts to get them to consider the pain which they are adding to his affliction:

Job 13:6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
Job 13:7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
Job 13:8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?

Who among us were not Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar on steroids when we once taught that not only was that sinner deserving of more than his sin deserved (Job 11:6), but he was going to burn in literal flames of fire for all eternity. We have all ‘spoken wickedly for God, and talked deceitfully for Him’.
“Will you accept His person?” It is wrong to be a ‘respecter of persons’ when judging between men, but we think ourselves to be doing God a service when we present Him to this world as the monster we make Him out to be. “Will you contend for God?” tells us that we, with our onerous concepts of a loving heavenly Father who will either annihilate or torment His creatures for all eternity, that we are “contending for God” while we are really blaspheming His name.

Job 13:9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
Job 13:10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
Job 13:11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?

God certainly does search us. He is not looking for something of which He is not aware, rather He reveals to us “the secrets of [ our own] heart”.

Psa 44:21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

Eternal life is knowing God and His Son, and having their mind. When we don’t even know how God and His Son think and yet we claim to be speaking for God, we cannot help but “mock Him”, and at the same time we will be thinking that we are “doing God a service” while doing so.

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Joh 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

“Shall not His excellency make you afraid? and His dread fall upon you?” Yes, of course it should, but Job himself, the type and shadow of us ourselves, at this point, does not really grasp what is “His excellency”.

2Co 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

One of the most glaring distinctions between “that which was glorious” and “the glory that excelleth” are these two conflicting laws:

Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

In spite of these plain words, the orthodox Christian world exhorts those in their charge to get involved in the affairs of this age and go out and fight and kill for God and country.
We have all been murderers by virtue of hating our brother at some time in our lives.

1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

“As one man mocks another do you not mock Him?” When we claim to speak for God and deny His Words, we certainly are mocking Him and blaspheming His name. We, as the anti- type of Job’s comforters, have mocked God, and we have blasphemed His name.

Rom 2:24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

Job 13:12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Job 13:13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
Job 13:14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

“Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay” are Biblical words which tell us that the flesh of all men is “marred in the hand of the Potter”. Ashes and clay are the Biblical type of our “old man… the first man Adam… flesh and blood [ which] cannot inherit the kingdom of God”. Ashes and clay are both “out of the ground” will indeed return there again, and will, in that state be under the feet of our “new man… the last Adam”.

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Mal 4:3 And ye [ our new man] shall tread down the wicked[ the old man]; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

“Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will,” Job knows that the things he is being accused of are false, and his self- righteousness is so deep that he simply cannot conceive of why God is doing this to him. He is so confident of his own righteousness, that he is willing to receive whatever curse may come upon him for standing on his conviction that he is above reproach. As we continue our studies, Job’s confidence in his own righteousness increases. He is just getting started, and he is the type and shadow of how we respond to anything thing that might have the appearance of humbling us. “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men”. Indeed we all will do just that in time, but that spirit is contrasted against the self righteous spirit that first must be burned out of all men.

Psa 107:21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

It is God’s “goodness and wonderful works” which leads us all to repentance:

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

It simply is not possible for our old man to accept the things Job is enduring as God’s “goodness and forbearamce and longsuffering”. What is needed at this stage of our suffering is just pity.

Job 19:21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

When Job says, “Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?” he is telling us that he is now willing to die for his conviction that God is on his side and will justify him in the end. The word translated “wherefore” is actually two Hebrew words ‘al’ and ‘maw’, which are far more commonly translated as ‘al’, meaning ‘against, and ‘maw’, meaning ‘which’. So Job is saying that he is so confident that his friends are ‘speaking wickedly for and deceitfully for God’, and that he himself is above reproach, and will be exonerated by God, that he is more than willing to “take his flesh in his teeth and put [ his] life in [ his own] hand” and continue with his self- righteous, self- justifying speech.

Job 13:7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will see that Job is willing to die to prove himself just and to maintain his integrity.

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Job 13:16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.
Job 13:17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
Job 13:18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.
Job 13:19 Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
Job 13:20 Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.
Job 13:21 Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.
Job 13:22 Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.
Job 13:23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.
Job 13:24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
Job 13:25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
Job 13:26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
Job 13:27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
Job 13:28 And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.

Hey, Mike,

I currently have the same fear that woman has of what God has planned for the future – and I agree with you that that’s an indication of attachment to the flesh.  Fear of death, both spiritual and physical… thank you for the Scripture – still hoping for Christ’s righteousness within me and the new being.   However, while sort of on the same subject, I have been wondering awhile how exactly Christ experienced the wrath of God.  When did Christ experience suffering for one’s own sin (certainly not His?) as opposed to suffering for righteousness?  If you have written anything prior, feel free to direct me to that – I don’t want to take your extra time.

Your brother in Christ,
M____

Good morning M____,
On the subject of wrath you ask:

I have been wondering a while how exactly Christ experienced the wrath of God. When did Christ experience suffering for one’s own sin (certainly not His?) as opposed to suffering for righteousness?”

No Christ did not suffer for His own sins, but He did suffer for the sins of His body, which ‘body’ we are. In suffering for His body’s sake, He so identifies with us that we, too, must “fill up in our bodies what is behind of the sufferings of the Christ…”

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of [ the] Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what [ is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

So while the head of “the Christ” never committed a sin, the body of “the Christ” certainly has. When Saul of Tarsus asked who had struck him down on the road to Damascus, the answer from our Lord was “I am Jesus whom you persecute” (Act 9:5). I, for one, am willing to take Christ at His word and acknowledge that I am [ part of] Jesus whom Saul was persecuting. I am part of Christ’s Christ. When Christ answered Saul “I am Jesus whom you persecute,” even though I certainly am not the spotless Lamb that the head of the body of the Christ was, I am part of “His body which is the church,” and it is through that ‘body’ that the Christ becomes not only the sin offering, but He becomes the trespass offering for whom He died.
A key verse to understanding the difference between the sin offering and the trespass offering is Rom 4:25.

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

The word ‘for’ which I have emboldened and underlined is not the preferred translation for the Greek behind that word. The Greek word which is properly translated ‘for’ is the Greek word ‘gar.’ It means ‘for’ or ‘because,’ and it is so translated many times in the New Testament. But the Greek here in this verse is not ‘gar,’ but it is ‘dia.’ ‘Dia’ is the Greek word most commonly translated as ‘through.’
So it is “through our offenses” that Christ was delivered up to be crucified, and it is “through our justification” that He was raised again from among the dead. That is just how important to the revelation of Jesus Christ is the first Adam. Without the first Adam, there would be no last Adam.

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’ s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Here is an example of how this Greek word ‘dia’ is properly translated:

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through [ Greek – dia] the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

It is “through the flesh” that we are weak.

Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

This “weakness of the flesh” is not because of, or through our decisions. The exact opposite is true. Our decisions to sin are through the weakness of the flesh.

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [ how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

This weakness of the flesh was just as true of Christ’s flesh as it is of ours. If that is not so, then these verses are not true:

Mat 4:11  Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Luk 22:43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

The only difference between Christ and us is that we were not born from our mother’s womb by the holy spirit, and God had not predestined us to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. So we commit sins and trespass against God, whereas Christ “was made sin who knew no sin” (1Co.5:21). Nevertheless Christ was here on this earth “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” and that is the likeness of Adamic, Abrahamic, and Davidic flesh. So Christ was both the “Son of Man” and the “Son of God.” But it is very instructive to note that Christ referred to Himself as “the Son of Man” almost twice a many times as He referred to Himself as “the Son of God.” Of course He was both, but the emphasis was on the fact that He identified with His brothers in the flesh and all the struggles which we all endure.

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

This verse certainly is not speaking of Christ’s Father as being of “the fruit of [ King David’s] loins,” so it must be speaking of Christ’s mother, Mary, as “the fruit of [ King David’s loins].

Rom 1:3  Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

“He took not on Him the nature of angels… but… the same… flesh and blood… the seed of Abraham.”

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [ pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

“Like unto” is not ‘unlike His brothers.’ Christ’s temptation was real. His flesh pleaded with His Father for “another way” besides dying on the cross at the age of 33. It is only through “weakness of the flesh” that any man is tempted.

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

There was “no good thing” in Christ’s flesh. It is He who told us so:

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

It was also Christ Himself who told us that it would take resurrection from among the dead on “the third day” to perfect even Him. He Himself made no claim to being perfected in the flesh:

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

“Himself took part of the same… seed of Abraham… Himself has suffered being tempted he is able to succour [ comfort] them that are tempted.” If Christ were not in “weak flesh” then He cannot “comfort them that are tempted.” But Christ did come “in… sinful flesh.” He was thus “made… sin who knew no sin.” I have written much on this in the series on The Law of The Offerings. Go to those notes and read about why God sees the need for both a sin and a trespass offering. Notice that there is no particular sin mentioned in the description of the sin offering, because this is simply what flesh and blood are. It is not what flesh and blood do. Look again at how the spirit puts it:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [ how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Twice the spirit tells us that our sins are not our own but that which dwells in our flesh. Here is the same doctrine in the Old Testament:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay [ Adam and all flesh in Adam] was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

The fact that sin is but an instrument of God is to be found throughout Old Testament scripture:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pro 20:24  Man’s goings [ good or evil] are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

When Christ responds to the Devil and tells the Devil that “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” Christ is referring to Himself as a ‘man.’ He is telling the devil and us that He is a man who needs to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Now look at the Hebrew behind that verse of Old Testament scripture which Christ quoted concerning Himself needing to live by every word of God.

Deu 8:3  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

The Hebrew word which Christ quoted here is ‘adam.’ Christ is calling Himself ‘adam.’ But that was really never in question for all who know Christ and His Father.

Heb 2:11  For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

You ask:

I have been wondering for awhile how exactly Christ experienced the wrath of God?

Here is the Biblical answer to that question.

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

It takes a spiritually blinded person to not see that this is what caused Christ to cry out:

Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

I hope this answers your questions concerning how and why God’s wrath was experienced by our High Priest so that He could comfort us when it is also poured out on all of our unrighteousnesses.

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

I will close by re- quoting that verse in Isa 54, but I will put the emphasis on the purpose for God’s wrath instead of the fact that we all must live by these words which proceed out of the mouth of God:

Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Hi Mike,

Do you see grace (which chastens and disciplines) available (accessible) only to those who have come out of Babylon?

Seems to me, those who are under law, false doctrine of Christ, don’t have access to grace. The law hasn’t done its work yet of leading them to the true Christ. They do not have the faith of Christ.

In other words, is grace what brings us out of Babylon, or is grace (the chastening that causes daily death to self) a result of coming out of Babylon?

Seems to me that grace is given to all men, but it is only through faith that it is “accessed”.

Rom 5:2 through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. (seems if sin no longer has dominion over one, then one is out of Babylon).

Thanks for your time and ministry.

L____

Hi L____,

I have pointed out on many occasions that grace and faith cannot be separated:

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Grace comes only “through faith.” Now, with that in mind, I want you to look at this verse of God’s Word:

Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

We are told “not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.” And we are told to think “according to the measure of faith.” It is “by grace through faith” that we receive the “deadly wound by a sword” when we first come “to Christ” through the law-keeping “son of the bondwoman” church. That is the “measure of faith” given to us up to that time. But even though we have been “brought to Christ by the law,” even though we are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints… coming behind in no gift,” we are nevertheless “yet carnal.”

1Co 1:1 Paul, called [to be] an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes [our] brother,
1Co 1:2 (a) Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,
1Co 1:5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1Co 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Babylon is “in everything enriched by Him, in all utterance and knowledge.” It is while still in Babylon that “the testimony of Christ is confirmed in us and we come behind in no gift.”

And yet we are told that with all of these blessings, those who are in Babylon are “yet carnal…[with] enmity against God.”

This is “the measure of faith” given to us at this point, and that faith is “by grace.” It is one of the hardest things in the world for us to see how we can come out of Babylon and yet not be part of the “body of Christ, which is His church.”

Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

A letter has just been posted which explains this phenomenon. It is entitled ‘How Can We Come Out of The Church and Still Be In It?’ I will not rewrite that letter here, but you need to read it to understand how “grace is given to all men” and yet men can come out of Babylon and still be carnal.

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The law has done its work of bringing those in Babylon to Christ. Their beast within has received a “deadly wound with a sword.” They have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.” Nevertheless “they are yet carnal.” This is all accomplished through the “many pastors” who will not enter into the kingdom and hinder those who would and make them two fold “more the child of hell than themselves.”

Jer 12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

Mat 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

The “gold, silver and precious stones” of Babylon are real “gold, silver and precious stones.” But under the “many pastors” they are cankered gold and they are in need of purification of the fire of God’s Word.

Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

To answer your question directly, grace is available to all men – in and out of Babylon. But it is available only “according to the measure of faith” given to each man.

Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

I hope this has answered your question. Read that paper on ‘How We Can Come Out Of The Church and Still Be In It?’ Then if you still don’t understand how this is possible, drop me another e- mail.

Mike

Thank you Mike, I read tonight 1Co 1-10 again. I would appreciate your prayers, this has been one of the hardest areas for me to “come out of”, the ingrained belief that once we “accept Christ” we still are not there.

It is hard for me to accept (my flesh) that those sanctified in Christ (at least most) will have to go through the lake of fire along with those not sanctified, the non believers. I think I still struggle with the lake of fire as being punishment and unloving rather than God’s love in action. I mean this at a heart level, as I have knowledge of it, but all is a process.

Thanks again, L____

Hi L____,

I’m glad that you are at least struggling with this issue. Here is a scripture you will find helpful in understanding that the lake of fire is a work of grace. Paul is talking to Peter at Antioch when Peter and Barnabas had separated themselves from the Gentiles after having eaten with the Gentiles before. The only reason they were separating themselves was because some other Christian brothers from Jerusalem had come down to Antioch and were telling Peter and Barnabas that the law of Moses forbade them from eating with the Gentiles. This was true. If you believed that anything which has touched a piece of unclean meat was itself unclean, then you would indeed be obliged to separate yourself from eating with people who were comfortable eating unclean meats.

Now you will not find a command in the law of Moses which states clearly ‘you shall not sit down to eat with a Gentile’, but that is the message and force of the laws of the offerings. Any earthen utensil which has ever touched a piece of unclean meat was to be destroyed.

Lev 11:33 And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them [the meat of any unclean animal] falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it.

With this understanding of why Peter and Barnabas and all of the Jews who were with them separating themselves from their Gentile brothers at Antioch, look at this admonition which Paul give to Peter “before them all:”

Gal 2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Now it was Paul who also revealed to us that grace comes through faith. Here we see that Paul is telling Peter that “no flesh” (not even Jewish flesh) shall be justified by the works of the law.”

What Paul is telling Peter is that salvation comes only by grace through faith. And this is true for “all flesh”, Gentile and Jew alike:

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

“Grace through faith” is the formula for salvation. And that faith is the “faith OF Jesus Christ.” It is the gift of God to give us His chastening grace through the faith of His Son Jesus Christ. And this will be done just as thoroughly through Christ as death passed upon all men through Adam without consulting any of us as to whether or not we would choose to be “in Adam:”

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

“As in Adam… so in Christ.” Now if two plus two equals four, and it does, then this equation means that just as all men are subjected to “the law of sin and death” and experience Adam’s experience of “doing that which we would not” even so “in Christ, all mankind will experience God’s chastening grace “chastening us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lust and to live godly lives…”

Some few will have this experience of God’s chastening grace while yet in these “marred… vessels of clay,” which Paul refers to as “the body of this death.” But it is God Himself who decided “before the world began” that He would choose these few out of the many He would call. The reason for choosing the ‘few’ out of the many is to use the ‘few’ to bring in the ‘many:’

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

“God has concluded all in unbelief” not for the purpose of tormenting all for all eternity, but for the purpose of using His elect to also show mercy to the rest of mankind: “… That through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.”

That mercy will be the “free grace” of God’s greatest work of His chastening grace in the experience of mankind. It is called a “lake of fire.” And who is this ‘lake of fire but those who “are like Him” who is a “consuming fire.” Here are the scriptures for these statements:

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

“We shall be like Him?” Then what is He like?

Heb 12:29 … Our God is a consuming fire.

And who is it that dwells in this “consuming… everlasting fire?” Is it the the wicked who are being tormented for all eternity, as the many called but not chosen “mother of harlots” and her daughter harlots teach? Is that who is to “dwell in” and comprise this lake of fire? What say the scriptures of those who are “like Him?”

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites [harlots]. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

So you see, God’s decision to use His elect to bring in his called is no different than His choosing Christ to bring in His elect. God is not “loving and hugging His mature children while telling his immature children that He doesn’t love them,” as I have been accused of teaching. What God is doing is carrying out a plan which is in line with His own “purpose for the eons” which He sovereignly conceived “before the world began:”

Eph 3:11 in accord with the purpose of the eons, which He makes in Christ Jesus, our Lord;”(CLV)

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called [us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

God determined “before the world began” who would receive eternal (eonian) life and therefore who would also receive eternal (eonian) punishment.” Neither, of course, have anything to do with the English word ‘eternity.” Both have to do with the “purpose of the aions.”

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.

Rom 9:11 For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called [us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began [Greek: chronos aionios – times aionian],

I hope this helps you to see the lake of fire in its scriptural perspective. It is not the “mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.” But neither is it the unspeakable monstrosity which the “many pastors” of Babylon have made it out to be. It is a day of giving account for all whom God decided to “hate while they were in their mother’s womb having done neither good nor evil.”

Being “hated of all men” is what we simply must experience if we hope to be in the blessed and holy first resurrection.

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Yet we must never be ashamed to confess with the apostle Paul what has been granted to us:

Eph 3:8 To me, less than the least of all saints, was granted this grace: to bring the evangel of the untraceable riches of Christ to the nations,
Eph 3:9 and to enlighten all as to what is the administration of the secret, which has been concealed from the eons in God, Who creates all,
Eph 3:10 that now may be made known to the sovereignties and the authorities among the celestials, through the ecclesia, the multifarious wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11 in accord with the purpose of the eons, which He makes in Christ Jesus, our Lord;”

If the scriptures are reliable, and they are, then these words are truer today more than ever because we have been forewarned:

2Ti 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

“The administration of the secret” is still to this very day “sealed with seven seals” from all but the “seven angels of the seven churches.”

Rev 19:9 And he [the angel] saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See [thou do it] not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:8 And I John saw these things, and heard [them]. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

Let’s simply believe what God has revealed to us about who we are and what is our calling and commission.

Mike